Giovanni Battista Guarini, Italian poet, playwright, and diplomat (born 1538)

Giovanni Battista Guarini was an Italian poet, dramatist, and diplomat. Courtier at Ferrara, diplomat and secretary to several ruling families, he served also at Florence and Urbino. He is best known as the author of the pastoral tragicomedy Il pastor fido. Written in emulation of Tasso's Aminta, it was extremely successful and remained one of the most popular work of secular literature in Western Europe for almost two hundred years.